User:Mutanabbi/History of ontologies

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Human Pattern Matching and the History of Ontologies new article content ... INTRODUCTION

This page is devoted to an overview of the highest level ontologies in use in different cultures throughout history. It is thus related to but distinct from a number of existing Wikipedia pages or sections of pages, in particular those dealing with the history of metaphysical and religious ontologies , scientific taxonomies  , knowledge representation in general  , library classification systems  , pedagogical systems and curricula  and folksonomies , among others. Relevant sources are thus heterogeneous, ranging from metaphysical or religious works, to explicitly scientific attempts at classification, to practical systems for arranging reference works or organizing education,  The point is to permit a synoptic overview of how a culture in one time and place organized the world around it, facilitating comparison with the perspective of other cultures. The ontologies described on this page need not have been intended to be entirely comprehensive, an intention that is often difficult to determine; but merely that they are extremely general. When the categorization is explicitly intended to be include everything in human experience it is hoped that contributors will draw attention to that fact. It is meant to include attempts to distinguish the major categories of human experience as well as natural phenomena.

The inventory of high level ontologies is preceded by an inventory of those human characteristics, such as pattern recognition and interpretation and the innate preferences for specific behaviors, that structure our experience and activity. This section is meant to represent our best current understanding of the ways that our biology, culture, language and personal experiences shape the categories we use. It is intended to remind us that the most common general schemes for categorizing both human experience and behavior and the rest of the world, are themselves influenced by human biology and culture. It's own explanatory categories are thus meant to be revised continuously, rather than forming a historical narrative. When they are superseded, if they were sufficiently general and influential they may find a place in following historical inventory of major ontologies, disappearing from this first section. The chronological format of the historical inventory of ontologies explicitly ignores disciplinary boundaries implicit in categories like "educational curricula," "scientific taxonomies", "metaphysical ontologies" etc, to focus on the formal rather than the semantic characteristics of the ontologies- features such as the number of categories, their level of abstraction or comprehensiveness and their interrelations.

While the specific ontologies described in the historical section must surely reflect the specific needs and opportunities of the historical moments in which they arose, a subject for detailed historical and philological scholarship, this page is intended as a repository for evidence of how they may also reflect human universals in how we structure our world. It's focus is not on either the genetics or the experiences that create humans' pattern recognition, interpretation, and expression systems, but rather on what we are learning about the patterning systems themselves- the categories through which we perceive, interpret and model the world around us.

= Human Pattern Recognition, Interpretation and Expression =

The human organism can only become aware of what is outside it through a small number of highly specific pattern recognition systems that have been optimized through evolution for extremely practical tasks such as the detection of predators, prey and above all rivals. For these purposes they usually work very well, but for a more complete inventory of reality we must use specialized instruments and often perform complex calculations on what the instruments tell us to build up more truthful models of the world around us. Even with these special instruments and models, each of us still lives in the world created by the limitations of our species, what von Uexkull has termed our "Umwelt." These limitations include perceptual limitations through which we respond to only certain sorts of stimuli over a specific range of magnitude, as well as interpretive limitations resulting from ignorance and various cognitive and emotional biases, privileged associations and illusions. Similarly, our species has a large but still limited behavioral repertoire for responding to the interpretations that it has made of what it has perceived. Our personalities and our cultures develop within these constraints, and we are still discovering how they are shaped by them. This section reviews some of the better documented patterns in human perception, interpretation and behavior, while the following sections review some of the classical classification systems or ontologies that illustrate both the variety and the commonalities of the imagination with which people have organized their worlds throughout history.

Distinct Brain Regions for Pattern Recognition

Genetic Variation in Brain Localization

Categories of Perception and Perceptual Systems
taste: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, umami.

audition: frequency- pitch volume- amplitude timbre-quality-tone (overtones present) concord- harmony melody rhythm

olfaction: ten dimensions effects on motivation and behavior:

vision:

shape perception:

color vision: V4

motion detections: V5

Recognition of Faces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusiform_face_area

Viewpoint Specific Geometry of local environment: Parahippocampal Place Area

Viewpoint Invariant Geometry of local environment: Retrosplenial Cortex

Parts of the Human Body Extrastriate Body Area

Cerebral Lateralization: Greater linguistic facility in one, usually the left, with greater freedom of pattern recognition in the other While the prefrontal lobes are involved with executive function (planning, reasoning,overriding impulses) there appears to be some degree of lateralization with the left frontal cortex specializing in verbal working memory and the right frontal cortex in visuospatial memory.

time and rhythm:

The discipline of chronobiology has documented a variety of way in which an individual's physiological rhythms, affect cognition, affect, and behavior as well as vulnerability to illness and response to therapeutic interventions.

Heuristics and Biases
Systematic sources of illusion and deception. We have only recently become aware of how pervasively our interpretations are affected by cognitive and emotional biases of various kinds. The well-known human tendency to see faces in visual patterns and narrative plots in events turns out to be merely the tip of a very big iceberg. A word has even been coined for the tendency to see meaningful patterns in data that does not contain them: apophrenia The specific form of apophrenia that sees images, such as faces, in random data is termed pareidolia

Phonemic and Lexical Recognition
It appears that the processing of what are interpreted as nouns and verbs takes place in distinct regions of the brain. (See linguistic universals below)

Facial Expressions
Facial Action Coding System

Microexpressions

Language
linguistic universals:

linguistic relativity:

Language expresses alternative systems for orientation in space and time. eg spatial orientation by cardinal points versus

Gender affects association patterns:

language learning and use:

narrative construction:

categorization and metaphors:

Rhetoric

linguistic theory and scholarship- philology

Personality
Big Five Personality Factors

Learning Styles and Aptitudes
declarative learning

procedural learning

--- rapidity of learning

duration of retention

Cognitive Styles
Plato/Aristotle

Whitehead/Russell

Architecture
= Undated Ontologies and Classification Systems =

Traditional Classifications of Human Relationships-By Culture
kinship, marriage, alliances family, friends, others, enemies

Traditional Classifications of Humans and Human Behavior- By Culture
type and frequency of adjectives applied to persons- in novels, in correspondence

noble, ignoble courageous/cowardly sacred-inspired good/bad selfish/selfless empathetic/cold loyal/treacherous

Linguistic Universals: Parts of Speech
Nouns and Verbs appear to be a nearly universal distinction.

Grammatical Genders and Classifiers
Yanyuwa

1     female (human  2      male (human 3     feminine 4     masculine 5     food (non-meat) 6     arboreal 7     abstract 8     body parts 9     familiar kinship 10    formal kinship for close kin 11 	formal kinship-grandparent level 12 	formal kinship-avoidance 13 	human group 14 	personal names 15 	ceremony names 16 	place names

Swahili

1     singular: persons 2 	plural: persons (a plural counterpart of class 1) 3	singular: plants 4 	plural: plants (a plural counterpart of class 3) 5 	singular: fruits 6 	plural: fruits 7 	singular: things 8 	plural: things (a plural counterpart of class 7) 9 	singular: animals, things 10 	plural: animals, things (a plural counterpart of class 9 and 11) 11 	singular: no clear semantics 15 	verbal nouns 16 	locative meanings: close to something 17 	indefinite locative or directive meaning 18 	locative meanings: inside something

Japanese counters:

枚 	Thin, flat objects: sheets of paper etc 部 	Packets of papers, magazines 冊 	Books 面 	Mirrors, boards, walls 階 	Number of floors, storeys

本 	Long, thin objects 台 	Mechanical devices 杯 	Cups and glasses, containers 匹 	Small animals and demons of any size 個, 箇 General measurement word, especially for small or round objects 名 	People (polite) 人 	People 話  Stories, narratives

Chinese classifiers

= Dated Ontologies and Classification Systems =

c. 3500 BCE ProtoIndoEuropean Grammatical gender masculine feminine neuter

c. 3500 BCE Proto-Bantu genders singular human plural humans thin or extended things instruments animals qualities body parts locations

500 BCE India.

the three Vedas

18 silpas (of uncertain nature- often including law medicine mathematics accounting surveying agriculture cattle breeding administration archery hunting military strategy magic elephant lore snake charming art of finding treasures

c. 500 BCE China

Rites (禮) Music (樂) Archery (射) Chariot handling (禦) Calligraphy (書) Mathematics (數)

c. 380 BCE Plato: Curriculum in Seventh Book of Republic

1 arithmetic 2 geometry 3 solids in motion 4 astronomy 5 music 6 dialectic

c, 235 Pinakes of Callimachus. Catalog of Library of Alexandria

1 rhetoric, 2 law, 3 epic, 4 tragedy, 5 comedy, 6 lyric poetry, 7 history, 8 medicine, 9 mathematics, 10 natural science 11 miscellanies

c. 420 Martianus Capella:

Mercury and Philologia

Philologia's Handmaidens: The Seven Liberal Arts 1 Grammar 2 Logic/Dialectic 3 Rhetoric 4 Geometry 5 Arithmetic 6 Astronomy 7 Music

c. 520 Quadrivium named by Boethius 1 Arithmetic 2 Geometry 3 Music 4 Astronomy

c. 840 Trivium named 1 Grammar 2 Logic/Dialectic 3 Rhetoric

c. 850 張彥遠 : 法書要錄  Zhang Yanyuan's Fashu Yaolu

四藝:

qin (the guqin, a stringed instrument. 琴   qi (the strategy game of Go, 棋),     shu (Chinese calligraphy 書) and    hua (Chinese painting 畫).

10th century Ibn al Nadim 938: Firhist: An index of all books written in Arabic. 1 the Holy Scriptures of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, with emphasis on the Qur'an and hadith; 2 works on grammar and philology; 3 history, biography, genealogy and the like; 4 poetry; 5 dialectical theology (kalam); 6 law (fiqh) and hadith. 7 philosophy and the 'secular sciences'; 8 legends, fables, magic, conjuring, etc.; 9 the doctrines (maqalat) of other religions (Manichaeans, Hindus, Buddhists and Chinese); 10 alchemy.

1267 Roger Bacon: Opus Maius: Four sources of error (Offendicula): following incorrect authorities custom the ignorance of others pretending to know what one does not Philosophy and Theology The Four biblical languages: Hebrew Greek Latin Arabic Mathematics Optics Experimental Science. Alchemy, Astronomy Moral Philosophy, Ethics

1620 Francis Bacon's Four Sources of Error from Novum Organum: Four Idols. Bacon's Idols Idols of the Tribe (Idola tribus): Limits, illusions and weaknesses common to all humans. (eg overconfidence in the senses;        overgeneralization, bias toward perceiving regular patterns, wishful thinking, too hasty judgement...    Idols of the Cave (Idola specus): Limitations and weaknesses of the individual person- prejudices from experience etc    Idols of the Marketplace (Idola fori): Problems arising from human intercourse, chiefly language. Having words for things        that do not really exist or not having adequate terms for things that really do exist.    Idols of the Theatre (Idola theatri): Blind adherence to traditional philosophies, whether excessively speculative,         inadequately reasoned or superstitious.

1626 Francis Bacon's epitaph: COMPOSITA SOLVANTVR

1885 Dewey Decimal System 000 – General Reference works, 100 – Philosophy and psychology 200 – Religion 300 – Social sciences 400 – Language 500 – Pure Science 600 – Technology 700 – Arts & recreation 800 – Literature 900 – History & geography

1897 Library of Congress System, LCC A -- GENERAL WORKS - B -- PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. RELIGION - C -- AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY - D -- WORLD HISTORY AND HISTORY OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, ETC. - E -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS - F -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS - G -- GEOGRAPHY. ANTHROPOLOGY. RECREATION - H -- SOCIAL SCIENCES - J -- POLITICAL SCIENCE - K -- LAW - L -- EDUCATION - M -- MUSIC AND BOOKS ON MUSIC - N -- FINE ARTS - P -- LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE - Q -- SCIENCE - R -- MEDICINE - S -- AGRICULTURE - T -- TECHNOLOGY - U -- MILITARY SCIENCE - V -- NAVAL SCIENCE - Z -- BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY SCIENCE. INFORMATION RESOURCES (GENERAL)

1852 Roget's Synopsis of Categories.

Abstract Relations Space Material World Intellect Volition Sentiment and Moral Powers

1950,52,55,71 Swadesh Lists of Basic Concepts 225, 215, 200, 100 basic concepts available in all cultures

1986/2012 Princeton Wordnet

noun: entity physical entity abstraction

1997 Stephen Jay Gould's Non-overlapping Magisteria Science Religion Art, etc

2010- DMOZ Open Directory Project Shopping Society News Science Business Health Computers Home Sports Arts Regional Reference Recreation Games World

2014 SUMO Suggested Upper Merged Ontology

Entity Physical Object self-connected object region collection agent Process dual object process intentional process motion internal change shape change Abstract quantity attribute set or class relation proposition graph graph element

2014 DBPEDIA

Thing Activity Agent Person Event Place Time Period TopicalConcept Work ...